Exactly. I'm not even sure what Boras' angle was saying that "he'll make sure private planes are available for any traded players so they can travel safely... but the team will still have to pay for the cost of the planes and the travel..." And as mentioned previously, anybody who doesn't like a perceived trade can just opt-out of the season due to virus concerns... which would make the team giving up valuable prospects pretty pissed off but ultimately there is no recourse.
Bell represents a really good bat that can replace Gurriel or Brantley with little to no drop-off. Bell has 2 more years of control left. He is having a really bad year so far but was great last season. He is the type of bat that might blossom in a deeper/better lineup. If the Pirates don’t want much for him (a couple of pitching prospects from Houstons 2nd tier) I think it would be a great idea. If they expect top prospects like Tucker they can pound sand. Diaz is an elite reliever who also has 2 years of control left. He’s been dominant so far this year so I’m sure their price is high. One interesting idea with NY would be to give up top prospects for Diaz but try to get NY to include some younger prospects to help Houstons farm on the back end. Hypothetical for each: Astros get: 1B Josh Bell Pirates get: RHP Brandon Bielak RHP Jojanse Torres Astros get: RP Edwin Diaz OF Michael Conforto C Francisco Alvarez Mets get: RHP Forrest Whitley OF Kyle Tucker RHP Bryan Abreu RHP Enoli Paredes The Mets have a lot of players Houston should have interest in. Lots of position players who could step in for Springer/Brantley/Gurriel, like Conforto, Nimmo, Smith, Davis, and McNeil. If they’d eat enough money, I would even be cool with taking on Robbie Cano and sticking him at 1B or in LF. They also have a lot of good pitching, several of whom might blossom under Strom; any of Porcello, Matz, Gsellman, Diaz, Wacha, Familia, Lugo, and Betances could all help the Astros.
I am pretty optimistic about the young arms in the upper levels so I do not want the Astros to overpay for bullpen help. If they are going to spend prospects or money, it should be to address the 3 middle of the order bats they are losing after this season. Of course if they know Verlander will be out all of next season then finding another top of the rotation starter becomes a priority as well.
I would gladly give up tucker and Whitley And more for a package including Diaz/ McNeil/ Conforto. With Osuna gone for the season and likely next season, you could get a guy in Diaz with some of the most electric stuff in the game. McNeil rakes- that dude in the 2 hole in this lineup would be ridiculous. It would likely take even more... but you’d get some solid years of control, shore up the back end of the pen, and get 2 solid bats to take over for our impending FA outfielders. I’ve been a huge advocate of keeping Tucker. But I believe if Click gets a package he likes, he will pull the trigger
Looking at the Mets roster, here are the guys who have less than 4 years control remaining that should be on the block that might help the Astros: C Wilson Ramos (2021) IF Robinson Cano (2023) IF Amed Rosario (2023) OF Brandon Nimmo (2022) OF Michael Conforto (2021) SP Rick Porcello (2020) SP Steven Matz (2021) SP Michael Wacha (2020) SP Robert Gsellman (2022) RP Edwin Diaz (2022) RP Seth Lugo (2022) RP Justin Wilson (2020) RP Jeurys Familia (2021) RP Dellin Betances (2020) RP Brad Brach (2020) RP Jared Hughes (2020) So many different potential trades for Houston there. It’s kind of surprising the Mets are not a better team; they have a lot of really good players. If they manage their assets correctly they could be stacked in 2-3 years. The most interesting piece in there is Cano. If Crane were open to taking on payroll, his contract could be a huge offset to the prospect cost and make guys like Nimmo, Conforto, Matz, and Diaz workable into a deal despite Houston not having a very good farm. High risk move since adding Cano would almost certainly mean letting Springer or Correa leave in free agency but high reward if he rebounds and lets them fill their roster holes thru 2023.
Edwin Diaz? That guy's been a disaster in New York. How about deGrom? Only after losing the closer's job... https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ml...moved-him-to-lower-leverage-spots/ar-BB17XOWB They moved Diaz into significantly lower-leverage situations beginning with his following appearance. Having entered each of his first three games in the ninth inning—twice with the Mets ahead by one and once with the Mets trailing by one—Díaz’s next outing was in the seventh inning of the Mets’ August 2 game against the Braves. They were trailing by three runs at the time. From there, Díaz came into the eighth with the Mets trailing by two on August 4, the ninth with the Mets trailing by one on August 7, the eighth with the Mets ahead by two on August 9, the ninth with the Mets trailing by one on August 11, and the eighth with the Mets ahead by five runs last night. There’s been a clear change in how the Mets have deployed Díaz over the past two weeks. With that shift has come drastically improved performance. In six appearances, Díaz has thrown six scoreless innings with twelve strikeouts and just one walk. He’s given up four hits and thrown a total of 101 pitches, an average of 16.7 pitches per inning. That stretch gives him a 2.16 ERA and 2.36 FIP in 8.1 innings of work this season—despite a very high .385 BABIP against him—with an outstanding 47.2 percent strikeout rate. If you didn’t know how terribly his 2019 season went and just saw the numbers from this year, you’d think that Díaz was roughly the same pitcher that he had been in his dominant 2018 season with the Mariners. Anyone who watched the Mets’ 2019 season, though, probably isn’t ready to pretend that it never happened. So it’ll be interesting to see when and how Luis Rojas starts putting Díaz into higher-leverage situations. There are two questions that will presumably be answered in the near future. First, when does Luis Rojas start putting Díaz into high-leverage, late-inning spots again? And second, will Díaz be able to maintain his great recent numbers once he starts pitching in those situations? It’s going to be tough to answer the latter with certainty, but in such a short baseball season, two-week stretches are a relatively significant period of time.
I don't think players, staff are allowed to take commercial flights. Things like physical and just getting player to the team would be difficult without private planes. He's not allowed to pay for the flights, but the legwork making it easier to acquire his players (and other players) is a nice service he's doing for his clients and other players especially if it causes them to lose QO provision.
With Reddick/Yuli their bats are still below the Yankees/Twins/As and have you seen their pitching? I'm sure trading for 2 non-star rental bats and a pitching project in a short season is exactly what they need to beat the elite teams...
Would you consider a trade with Cleveland revolving around Forrest Whitley and Zach Plesac? Whitley may end up being Appel 2.0 with injuries and command issues, whereas with Plesac we're getting a known commodity who will be getting a do-over in a new organization, and has years of team control. Plesac may be forced out, while everything we've heard from Whitley over the last 3 years has been very troubling. He's still a top 50 prospect on MLB.com, I'm open to getting value for him while we still can.
Please is pretty good. You could probably add in a bat like Reddick or Brantley and get some more from the Indians. The Indians love to bring back there own. I.E. Carlos Santana. Valera and McKenzie would be very good Targets for the Astros
We won’t touch Plesac with a 10 foot pole. Luhnow may have pulled the trigger on it, but Crabe cannot take the PR hit of trading for a player who broke COVID rules. That’s a no go.
Astros have nothing to lose with a PR hit. Astros may not want idiots on the team, but probably shouldn't care about perception at this point.
Tucker isnt going anywhere. Your starting outfield are all Free Agents. Alvarez is DH with his knees. You NEED Tucker (only had 237 at bats in the Bigs).
If he got traded to Houston, he might demand to be a starter lol. He blames the cheating scandal on why he's in the bullpen. Apparently he had a start against Houston and struggled at one point. Says had he pitched a shutout, maybe things would have been different (maybe he had a shutout until it went to the top of the order for the 3rd time).
The Astros wouldn’t likely trade Whitley for Plesac. There are a lot of concerns about just how good Plesac is.
